Emma Thompson's film about Effie Gray is withdrawn from film festival

Emma Thompson's film 'Effie Gray', about the unconsummated marriage of John
Ruskin, is itself proving a frustrating affair.

Filming of the starry drama was completed two years ago.Photo: GETTY IMAGES

By Tim Walker

7:30AM BST 15 Oct 2013

Although Donald Rosenfeld, the producer of Emma Thompson’s Effie Gray, assures me it is a “masterpiece,” it looks as if it will be a while yet before cinema audiences can judge for themselves.

Filming of the starry drama, about the Victorian art critic John Ruskin’s unconsummated marriage to Effie Gray, was completed two years ago, but its much-trumpeted premiere at Cannes in May was cancelled. Rosenfeld now cites “unforseen circumstances” for abandoning its postponed premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California.

The makers of the film talked about their “great regret” and “sincerely apologised” for the “inconvenience of this unexpected situation.” Dakota Fanning, who plays the title role alongside Emma Thompson, who also wrote the screenplay, had been expected to take part in a question and answer session and collect an award, but says she will not now be attending the festival.

The plan had been for Effie Gray to open on the East and West coasts of America, but punters who had booked to see it at the Hamptons Film Festival were also told that it had been “withdrawn”.

Rosenfeld was adamant when I spoke to him last month that there are no legal obstacles preventing the film from being shown. However, Gregory Murphy, the writer who alleges that Thompson drew inspiration for her screenplay from his play, The Countess, which was performed in the West End in 2005, tells me the legal battle is “ongoing”.